A Chorus Line
and Nicholas Dante, lyrics were written by Edward Kleban, and music was composed by Marvin Hamlisch.
With nineteen main characters, it is set on the bare stage of a Broadway theatre during an audition for a musical. The show provides a glimpse into the personalities of the performers and the choreographer as they describe the events that have shaped their lives and their decisions to become dancers.
The original Broadway production, directed and choreographed by Michael Bennett, was an unprecedented box office and critical hit, receiving 12 Tony Award nominations and winning nine of them, in addition to the 1976 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
It ran for 6,137 performances, becoming the longest-running production in Broadway history up to that time. It remains the longest running Broadway musical originally produced in the United States, and the fourth longest-running Broadway show ever.
The show has enjoyed many successful productions worldwide and was revived on Broadway in 2006.
Synopsis
At an audition for an upcoming Broadway production, director Zach and his assistant choreographer Larry put the gypsies through their paces. Zach tells them he is looking for a strong dancing chorus of four boys and four girls.
He wants to learn more about them, and asks the dancers to introduce themselves. The stories generally progress chronologically from early life experiences through adulthood to the end of a career.
The first candidate, Mike, explains that he is the youngest of 12 children.
Bobby tries to hide the unhappiness of his childhood by making jokes. As he speaks, the 17 dancers have misgivings about this strange audition process and debate what they should reveal to Zach ("And..."), but since they all need the job, the session continues.
Zach is angered when he feels that the streetwise Sheila is not taking the audition seriously.
Opening up, she reveals that her mother married at a young age and her father neither loved nor cared for them. When she was six, she realized that ballet provided relief from her family life.
At the ballet, notes Maggie, someone is always there, unlike the father she has never had ("At the Ballet").
The scatter-brained Kristine is tone-deaf, and her lament that she could never "Sing!" is interrupted by her husband Al finishing her phrases. Don remembers his first job at a nightclub, Richie recounts how he nearly became a kindergarten teacher, Judy reflects on her problematic childhood, and the 4'10" tall Connie laments the problems of being short.
Finally, the newly-buxom Val explains that talent alone doesn't count for everything with casting directors, and silicone can really help ("Dance: Ten; Looks: Three").
The dancers go downstairs to learn a song for the next section of the audition, but Cassie stays onstage to talk to Zach. She is a veteran gypsy who has had some notable successes as a soloist.
Zach sends her downstairs to learn the dance combination.
Zach calls Paul on stage, and he emotionally relives his early career in a drag act, coming to terms with his manhood, homosexuality and sense of self. Cassie and Zach's complex relationship resurfaces during a run-through of the number created to showcase an un-named star ("One").
Zach confronts Cassie, feeling that she is "dancing down," and they rehash what went wrong in their relationship and her career. Cassie replies, "I'll take chorus, if you'll take me!" During a tap sequence, Paul falls injured and is carried off to the hospital: his audition is over.
In later years, his claim that A Chorus Line had been his brainchild resulted in not only hard feelings but a number of lawsuits as well.
During the workshop sessions, random characters would be chosen at the end for the chorus jobs, resulting in genuine surprise among the cast. Subsequent productions, however, have the same set of characters winning the slots.
Original production
A Chorus Line opened off-Broadway at The Public Theater on May 21, 1975. At the time, the Public did not have enough money to finance the production.
The original cast starred Scott Allen, Kelly Bishop, Robert Lupone, Michael Serrecchia, Donna Drake,Wayne Cilento, Ronald Dennis, Baayork Lee, Priscilla Lopez, Donna McKechnie, Thommie Walsh, Nancy Lane, Kay Cole, Ron Kuhlman, Rick Mason, Don Percassi, Renee Baughman, Pamela Blair, Sammy Williams, Clive Clerk, Chuck Cissel, Brandt Edwards, Carolyn Kirsch, Cameron Mason, Michel Stuart, Crissy Wilzak and Trish Garland.
Advance word had created such a demand for tickets that the entire run sold out immediately. The production was nominated for 12 Tony Awards, winning nine: Best Musical, Best Musical Book, Best Score (Hamlisch and Kleban), Best Director, and Best Choreography, Best Actress (McKechnie), Best Featured Actor (Sammy Williams), Best Featured Actress (Bishop) and Best Lighting Design. The show won the 1976 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, one of the few musicals ever to receive this honor, and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play of the season.
When it closed, A Chorus Line was the longest running show in Broadway history until its record was surpassed by Cats in 1997 and then The Phantom of the Opera in 2006.
and international tours were mounted in 1976, including a run at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood.
A London production opened in the West End at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in 1976. It cost $8 million to finance and made back its investment in 19 weeks. The production was directed by Bob Avian, with the choreography reconstructed by Baayork Lee, who had played Connie Wong in the original Broadway production.
The opening night cast included Paul McGill, Michael Berresse, Charlotte d'Amboise, Mara Davi, James T. Lane, Heather Parcells, Alisan Porter, Jason Tam and Chryssie Whitehead. On April 15, 2008 Mario Lopez joined the cast as the replacement for Zach.
The production received two Tony Award nominations in 2007 for Featured Role (Charlotte d'Amboise) and Revival (Musical). The original contract for A Chorus Line provided for sharing the revenue from the show with the directors and dancers that had attended the original workshop sessions.
This production features Michael Gruber as Zach and Nikki Snelson as Cassie.
An unsuccessful film adaptation was released in 1985. As Kelly Bishop, the original Sheila, later noted, "it was appalling when director Richard Attenborough went on a talk show and said 'this is a story about kids trying to break into show business.' I almost tossed my TV out the window; I mean what an IDIOT! It's about veteran dancers looking for one last job before it's too late for them to dance anymore.
No wonder the film sucked!"
Other media
In 1990, original cast members Baayork Lee and Thommie Walsh collaborated with Robert Viagas on the book On the Line: The Creation of A Chorus Line, which chronicles the musical's origins and evolution and includes interviews with the entire original cast.
In 1990, Visa launched a marketing campaign around A Chorus Line as it was touring the United States. Stern and Adam Del Deo produced and directed a documentary film about the musical called Every Little Step, which includes footage of Michael Bennett and interviews with Marvin Hamlisch, Bob Avian, former New York Times theater critic Frank Rich, and original cast members Donna McKechnie and Baayork Lee.
Production of the documentary began in 2005 when 3,000 hopefuls arrived on the first day of auditions for the revival.